Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has revealed that the team took the decision to focus on its 2026 Formula 1 car only a short time into this year’s campaign.
The Maranello squad has endured one of the toughest seasons in its recent history in 2025, with the team yet to take a full Grand Prix win.
This year has been one with perhaps one of the biggest conundrums for teams in terms of when to pivot to next year’s machine, given next year presents the start of a brand new set of technical regulations.
And given the Scuderia’s wretched campaign, the choice to make that pivot a lot earlier than expected, and perhaps a lot earlier than many of its leading F1 rivals.
Ahead of this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc explained that he feels a semblance of confidence in the “sacrificed” 2025 in order to be in a better position for an assault on next year’s championship.
“I really hope so,” he told media including Motorsport Week when asked if he feels the team can turn over a new leaf.
“If I’m completely honest, I don’t know. Because there’s been so much change from this year to next year.
“Obviously, our target is to have everything right. But there are so many small things that can make a big differentiator in terms of competitiveness.
“That will have to get all these things right. At the moment, that’s where all our focus is. I feel like this year we sacrificed that end of that season to be focused fully on next year.
“So there’s all the elements that tell me that we are working in the right direction and properly. However, everybody probably had that feeling and only time will tell next year.
“But yeah, I don’t really think about how it will pan out. I more think about the process and what we can do in order to be as ready as possible.”
McLaren dominance a key factor in April decision for Ferrari pivot
Vasseur, also speaking in Losail ahead of this weekend’s penultimate round of the championship, expanded on the reasons, explaining that an embarrassing Chinese Grand Prix weekend and the evident dominance of McLaren were key factors in the decision.
“We didn’t start in the best way. The double disqualification in China. This cost us tonnes of points compared to the competitors,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“And quite early in the season, McLaren was so dominating the first four or five events that we realised it would be very difficult for 2025.
“It means that we decided very early in the season, I think it was end of April, to switch to ‘26. It was a tough call and perhaps I also underestimated a little bit the call on the psychological side, because then you have still 20 races to go and you know that you won’t bring any aero developments.
“It’s quite tough to manage psychologically, but overall we continue to push. We brought some mechanical upgrades, we are trying to do a better job on the operation, and this is the DNA of motorsport.”
When asked if there were any positives to take from 2025, Vasseur was glass-half-full in his assessment, saying: “Yes, you are always positive,” and added: “Even in a tough season, I think we had a decent recovery in terms of performance. We were back on the podium, Mexico, Austin.
“I would say in Sao Paulo, we are not far away that we were on the right way. It’s good for the team and it’s for the psychological side. You always improve a little bit everywhere in every single area. It’s the best preparation for 2026.
“But the most important of this goal is that we agreed quite early that we will put the maximum of energy in the future. We have to react as a team.
“When you have a tough weekend, you have to come back Monday morning at the factory and continue to push and build up and work all together.
“I think we had a good reaction to a tough session, to a tough weekend.”
Asked how the psychological impact on the whole team was mitigated, Vasseur explained that 2025 was not entirely a closed shop, and that the personnel were still able to remain busy on this year’s car with mechnical upgrades, unobstructing its fraught work on 2026.
“Yeah, but first, this decision was shared by everybody into the team,” he said, “that at one stage, you have a look at the championship, you say, ‘OK, it will be very difficult to come back on McLaren with the delta pace, the delta points’, and you say, ‘OK, that’s at least the resources that we have into the wind tunnel, let’s be focused on ‘26’.
“In the other end, you can still continue to develop the mechanical side, to bring some upgrades on the car, except IO, and it’s what we did, and it was a good exercise.
“For sure, the drivers, they were a part of this decision, because they are being committed to the project, and it’s something that we have to share all together, that in this kind of situation, you have to act as a team, and it’s what we did.”
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